Suffering for Christ

Have you ever longed for a role, a job, or place in life, for which you would give just about anything to have? And then, after you ﬁnally got what you wanted, you realized that it was more than or diﬀerent from what you were expecting? In today’s Gospel, two of Jesus’s disciples ask for a huge role - to sit at his right and left side in his eternal kingdom, and thereby suﬀer in a similar passion and death to that of Christ’s. They cannot imagine the suﬀering that they would have to undergo. With gentleness and love, Jesus tells them he will give them some of what they ask for, but not all. Hearing that we can’t do it all or have it all requires deep humility. Are you ready to acquire profound humility

First Reading Reflection

These verses from Isaiah come from the fourth Servant Song. Isaiah prophesied that the Suﬀering Servant would restore Israel and the New Covenant, and thereby redeem the world. The Jews often interpreted the Suﬀering Servant to represent the nation of Israel. Nevertheless, with the coming of Christ, we can see that he fulﬁlls the Suﬀering Servant prophecy, because he himself takes on the suﬀerings of Israel. In verse 10, we are told that the servant suﬀers by God’s will, not because God wills the evil, but because he allows it in order to bring about the good of his plan.

The verses in this week’s reading describe the suﬀering of the Servant, Jesus Christ. We are told that He suﬀers in order to “bear their iniquities” (v. 11). Isaiah makes it clear in his writings that all the individuals—both Israel and Gentiles—have committed iniquities against God. Isaiah not only connects the suﬀering with redemption, but he also identiﬁes the Suﬀering Servant with the guilt oﬀering of the Temple (“oﬀering for sin” here is literally “guilt oﬀering”). According to the Torah, if one had incurred guilt from serious sin, he had to make a guilt oﬀering in the Temple. A bull or lamb was often sacriﬁced to atone for the sin of the oﬀender (see Leviticus 7:1-10). Isaiah describes that the Suﬀering Servant will take the place of the lamb, and he himself will become the sin or guilt oﬀering. In fulﬁllment of this prophecy, Jesus, the Lamb of God, is sacriﬁced on the Cross to replace the animal sacriﬁces of the Old Covenant and thereby becomes the new guilt oﬀering that atones for sin. Jesus suﬀered for all the sins that separated man from God. Through the sacriﬁce of Christ, we can be united with God. According to the Old Law, it was necessary to eat the ﬂesh of the guilt oﬀering. Thus, under the New Law, the ﬂesh of Jesus is to be eaten in the Eucharist. At Mass, which re-presents the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, we, who are guilty, offer the flesh of the Spotless Victim in atonement for our sins. Through His sacrifice and our Communion, we are made one with God in Christ.

Second Reading Reflection

As was said above, Christ is the Victim of the sacriﬁce of the New Covenant. As this reading makes clear, He is also the new High Priest who oﬀers the new sacriﬁce. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that “the altar of the New Covenant is the Lord’s Cross,” (1182) and in that way, He is the Priest, Victim, and the Altar of Sacriﬁce. This means that Christ is both the victim and the High Priest who is oﬀering the victim to God the Father. The primary theme of Hebrews is the assertion that Christ has fulﬁlled the Old Law. He begins by asserting Jesus’s divinity by describing how he was for a little while made lower than the angels (Hebrews 2:7). Christ is then shown to be above Moses, of whom many of the rabbis said that he was above the angels. And if Christ is above Moses who was the founder, prophet, priest, and judge of the Sinai covenant, then He must also be above all the Levitical priests who administered the Temple sacriﬁces of that covenant as well.

Many scholars have suggested that priesthood is the dominant theme of Hebrews. One has even posited that the epistle may have been written to Levitical priests who lamented the loss of the Temple ritual.

The Jews of Jesus’s time believed that the heavenly throne of God was directly above the Temple in Jerusalem and that the pleasing odor of sacriﬁce rose up to God in atonement. However, the vision we get from the author of Hebrews is that the New High Priest has “passed through the heavens” and now oﬀers His perfect sacriﬁce at the Father’s right hand which causes “mercy and favor” to descend on the New Jerusalem of the Church from above. We are told in the passage from this Sunday that if we too ﬁnd our faith ﬂagging in the saving sacriﬁce of Christ the High Priest, we should be conﬁdent in the mercy that He dispenses from “the throne of grace.” Happily, the same human ﬂesh that Jesus took on in order to oﬀer sacriﬁce to the Father is the same ﬂesh that makes Him able to “sympathize with our weakness” (see CCC 662).

Gospel Reflection

Today’s Gospel reading demonstrates the humanity of the Apostles and the divinity of Christ. How many times have we, like James and John, asked for special treatment from God? Although we know that this mentality is often motivated by selﬁsh desires, most of us still engage in “special pleading.” Jesus understands our human nature, and rather than admonishing the Apostles for their request of the places at His right and left in glory, He does respond to the petition made by James and John, although not as they might have hoped. “You do not know what you are asking.” God may respond in a similar way to many of our requests. God is more intimate to us than we are to ourselves, which means that he knows exactly what we need. It’s often said that we must be careful about what we pray for because we might just receive it.

He declines their request for places of honor, however, because this is the gift given by the Father. While there is an element of pride in the request of the disciples, it is a testament to their beginning recognition that Christ is the King. The Apostles themselves were charged with passing on the content of the Gospel because of their close relation with Jesus.

We ﬁnd in the disciples the story of the people of Israel. The Israelites, even though they were God’s chosen people, were slow to follow his commandments; in fact, they would suﬀer the great consequence of exile because they failed to follow God’s laws. Thus, here again in the disciples, we see the repetition of the story of Israel. The disciples are proud and want to guarantee their own places in the Kingdom of Heaven. What they do not realize is that this is within God’s divine providence, but they must undergo great suﬀering before they can be with Christ in Heaven. It is much the same with us: while we might think that we can take the easy path to merit a place in Heaven, it is actually by the holy road of the Cross, that we attain the Beatiﬁc Vision. Let us then, unlike the Israelites, follow Christ as he carries his Cross, so that we might be with him someday in Heaven.

MEDITATION & DISCUSSION:

When you experience suff ering in your life, do you still trust God, as the Psalm proclaims?

When you have a problem, to who do you fi rst turn? Have you ever considered turning directly to Jesus, who has suff ered just as we do?.

DIGGING DEEPER: Fasting: Sacrificing with Jesus for Others

Before Jesus began his public ministry that would eventually lead to his Passion, Death, and Resurrection, he fi rst went off by himself in the desert for forty days to pray and fast. Fasting takes self-denial, and we feel it. However, through our suffering, we are able to join Christ in his sufferings in a profound way. This creates a space and real awareness in us that we need Jesus. What could be a more humble and quiet way of serving others than to fast when nobody is watching?

Reflections reprinted with permission from Opening the Word at Formed.org .Click here (subscribe for FREE, enter code: KK788T) to get the full content of Opening the Word, including video reflections, study guides and journals for the Sunday Mass readings of the year.